1 Prologue: Cultivation is Boring (2/2)
”Still too many years for me…and it just ain't worth the effort.”
”Cai Neng,” the chief said seriously. ”You have the potential to be the strongest martial artist in the world. Don't throw that away. If you do, you'll ascend to the highest ranks…probably become the Emperor's most trusted Divine General himself. You'll be renowned and honored not just in this village but throughout the Zhou Empire and the Middle Continent…even the world. You could protect those you love and attain everything your heart ever desires. You could be truly great.”
”I'm an orphan. I don't have anybody I want to protect.” Cai Neng rolled his eyes. ”Also, that whole glory stuff sounds like too much work. I don't want to fight people and climb to the top. I don't care about being super-strong or becoming some stupid lapdog general that barks to the Emperor's every whim. I just want to take naps and laze around. I just want to be happy.”
”What about the happiness of everyone else?” The chief countered. ”There are so many disasters and crises in this world. So much evil. You could destroy them all. You could save lives. You could fight the legendary dragons that terrorize the villages in the south. People would erect statues of you in your honor and lay down flowers at your feet. You could drive the demonic sects back to the north. You would become revered as a hero and savior of the entire Middle Continent!”
”Not my problem,” Cai Neng grumbled. ”Why should I risk my life for other people?”
”That,” the village chief sighed. ”Is remarkably selfish.”
”And you forcing me to be a martial artist is not? Shoving responsibilities of being a world savior onto a kid like me?” Cai Neng retorted. ”What a hypocrite you are.”
”I won't deny that,” the village chief admitted. ”But it's for the greater good of the village, and the empire.”
”And who decides that?” Cai Neng snapped as he turned away. ”I've heard enough. I'm leaving.”
Without another word, he strode toward the door and twisted the knob, only to frown when it refused to budge.
”Well…as you know, this world is a cruel one. The strong rules over the weak. The word of the strong is law. If you're weaker than someone else, you've to listen to them. And right now you're weaker than me.”
Cai Neng slowly turned around to glare at the village chief.
”You did something to the door, didn't you?” he spat. ”Open it.”
”No,” the village chief replied coldly. ”Perhaps if you trained, perhaps if you were strong, you could break free. If you choose to be lazy, you'll be subjected to the whims of those stronger than you. Like now.”
”Open the door.”
”No.”
”I hope you feel good about yourself,” Cai Neng snarled. ”Bullying a 12-year-old kid like me.”
The village chief shrugged. ”Actually, I do feel good about it. As I said, if you're strong, you can make others bow down to you and listen to you. That's how this world works.” His lips curled into a smile. ”You should try it…I'm sure you'll enjoy the feeling of subjugating others.”
”That's fucked up!” Cai Neng complained.
”Maybe you're the one who's overly naïve.” The village chief shook his head. ”But I am a fair man. How about a deal? If you can break the door, I'll allow you to leave. I'll teach you a martial arts technique that would require most people at least a month to master. For you, one day should be enough.”
Cai Neng glowered at him. ”Okay, fine. Show me the move.”
”First, lift your dominant arm like this…”
”No, I don't want your instructions. Just demonstrate the move.”
A fierce light shone in the old man's eyes. He stood from his seat and slowly raised his hand. White light gathered on his palm before flattening into a gauntlet-like aura. With a single flick of his arm, the village chief sent the fist-shaped qi hurtling through the air. The energy projectile slammed into the wall and left a huge dent in it, carving out a chunk of marble with a dull thump.
”This white energy is qi,” the village chief explained as he conjured another sheen of qi. ”Most people are unable to gather enough of it to make it visible, so you probably won't be able to see this white glow during your first attempt. To execute this move, all you need is to coat your palm with a thin layer of qi and then blast it toward the door.”
”…”
Cai Neng studied him quietly.
”Most people can't even sense qi to begin with. Even if it's you, you'll require a few hours under my guidance to finally be able to feel essence. To learn to convert essence into qi and then manipulate it will take a bit longer. This is the most basic martial arts techniques, Palm Strike.” The village chief grinned. ”I told you that martial artists will be able to fire off energy blasts. Still not convinced?”
Cai Neng closed his eyes in reply. When the village chief first executed Palm Strike, he had observed how the energy of the universe had gathered and condensed into a fiery brilliance in his palms. He had always sensed this energy, but never knew that he could use it in such a manner. Now that the village chief had shown him how, he could attempt it. Raising his hands, he mimicked the village chief and summoned the qi around him.
Warmth circulated around him, and he channeled the qi into his palms. He focused on the exact qi pathways that he had seen circulate into the chief's strike, accumulating as much qi as possible into the palm of his hand. With a flick of his hand, he imitated the chief and unleashed the qi in a single burst, but the white energy fizzled out almost as quickly as it appeared.
”A very impressive first effort,” the chief praised him sincerely. ”But…”
But Cai Neng wasn't paying any attention to him.
Instead, he repeated the procedure and gathered qi into his hands before lashing out again. This time, he relaxed so as to make his movement a lot less rigid and forced. Glimmers of light burst to life along the edges of his palm, coating his hand in a silvery aura. He swung it with as much force as possible.
A second before the white energy blast made contact with the door, it stopped, as if hitting an invisible barrier, and dissipated.
Cai Neng turned to the chief, who was staring at him with wide eyes.
”A day, you said?” he mocked the older man.
Blinding light erupted across the room. Time seemed to slow as the essence of the universe condensed into a ferocious supernova in his palm. The next moment, blazing fury rent wood apart in an explosion of splinters. When the white flash died down, the village chief could only gape in disbelief at the ravaged, scorched remains of his door. By the time he recovered from his shock, Cai Neng was long gone.
*
”Bloody geezer.”
Grumbling to himself, Cai Neng stomped toward his home. Flinging his door open, he barely threw himself inside his house and plopped down onto the ground, exhausted. Martial arts burned away a tremendous amount of energy and he was now feeling completely spent.
Good. This was a great time to take a nap. It wasn't ideal to nap on the floor, but the bastard village chief had made him late for his nap and right now he didn't care if he was in the bed or out in the woods. He just wanted to sleep.
”…huh?”
Cai Neng blinked when he realized that something was amiss. Earlier, he didn't realize it because he was tired, but now he remembered that he had locked the door before he left for that stupid ceremony earlier that morning.
Yet he had just flung it open without unlocking it with his keys.
”What?!”
Cai Neng bolted to his feet, his weariness suddenly forgotten. He tensed when he sensed that he wasn't alone in his house.
There was an intruder. No…there were many intruders.
”Ah, damn it! Can't everyone just leave me alone?!” he howled in exasperation. Gathering qi into his hand as he recalled the move he had just learned from the village chief, he stomped angrily toward the trespassers.
There was a rustle as the intruders became aware that he had just returned home. However, Cai Neng was in no mood to wait for an explanation.
”Get out of my house,” he snarled. ”I'm in a foul mood today, and if you're going to bother me about this whole martial artist thing again, I swear I'll kick your ass…”
He never completed his sentence. A scythe swung through the air.
”…eh?”
Cai Neng never saw the attack coming. The next thing he knew, his vision was spiraling upward, the floor, walls and ceiling of his house rolling around like some disorientated marble. There was a thud and a spray of something wet hitting the ground. As the constantly shifting vision stopped, he caught sight of a headless body wobbling, a geyser of blood spurting from its neck.
”Ah…I thought this house was abandoned.”
A massive man with red skin and black tattoos strode out of the shadows, stroking his bloodstained scythe. He stared disdainfully at the headless body and then at Cai Neng, even as the shadows stirred behind him.
To Cai Neng's shock, he found that he actually recognized that massive man. That was Tian Sha Tian Zun, one of the most malicious and cruel exponents of the demonic way. He was the sect leader of the Tian Sha Sect – that must mean the other intruders hidden in the shadows were his subordinates.
But that wasn't the most shocking thing at all.
Cai Neng understood that the headless body that he was seeing belonged to him.
W…what happened? No way…
Cai Neng tried to say something, but his voice wouldn't come out. It was only natural. His head had been completely severed from his body, his throat cleanly sliced into two. His vocal chords were separated from his mouth, drenched in the gushing geyser of blood.
”Hmph. Just a rotten kid.”
Tian Sha Tian Zun's lips curled into a sneer as he gazed down on Cai Neng, who was gradually being swept away by the darkness of oblivion. Cai Neng couldn't even follow Tian Sha Tian Zun as the demonic sect leader stalked off to some other part of his house, presumably looking for something. He would find nothing.
An orphan like Cai Neng didn't own anything, after all.
As Cai Neng's consciousness was consumed, he felt a deep sense of regret. If he had taken the village chief's advice, he wouldn't have died a pathetic, dog's death like this. He would be learning martial arts right now and fighting monsters like this smug, red-skinned bastard.
But it was too late.
Just like that, the promising life of Hao Cai Neng was cruelly cut short.